Former President Donald Trump has unleashed a bombshell ultimatum to business leaders and those in charge of generating shareholder value: vote for him or face getting “fired,” all because of President Joe Biden’s dastardly plan to jack up the corporate tax rate to a sky-high 28%.
“Business Executives and Shareholder Representatives should be 100% behind Donald Trump! Anybody that’s not should be FIRED for incompetence!” Trump proclaimed on Truth Social, his social media platform.
You see, the current 21% U.S. corporate tax rate is just too darn low for Biden and his cronies. Biden’s grand scheme to bump it up to 28% is a blatant attempt to undo the Republicans’ precious 2017 tax cuts. This would catapult the U.S. corporate tax rate to one of the highest among major economies. Meanwhile, some Republicans are desperately clinging to the hope of slashing it down to a cool 15%.
Trump has recently expressed his desire to reduce the corporate tax rate to 20%. Before the Tax Cut and Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA), the rate was 35%. In 2023, the worldwide average corporate income tax rate across 181 jurisdictions was 23.45%, as reported by the Tax Foundation. When weighted by GDP, the average statutory rate was 25.67%.
Democrats, ever the killjoys, have slammed the 2017 tax cuts as a windfall for the wealthy. U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) recently highlighted the need for a change in direction.
“The Trump tax cuts were a gift to the ultrarich and a rotten deal for American families and small businesses,” Whitehouse stated. “With their impending expiration, we have a chance to undo the damage, fix our corrupted tax code, and have big corporations and the ultra-wealthy begin to pay their fair share.”
Adjusting the corporate tax rate, whether raising or lowering it, could have significant implications for the U.S. economy, federal spending, and the national deficit.
The TCJA made several changes to individual taxes. It reduced personal income tax rates and simplified the tax filing process by increasing the standard deduction and limiting major itemized deductions like the mortgage interest deduction (MID) and state and local tax (SALT) deduction. As a result, more people chose the standard deduction, simplifying the tax process.
Most of the individual income tax provisions from the 2017 tax act are set to expire at the end of 2025, as detailed in the CBO report. These provisions include:
- Statutory tax rates and brackets.
- Allowable deductions.
- The amount and refundability of the child tax credit.
- The 20% deduction for certain business income.
- Income amounts at which the alternative minimum tax starts to apply.
The TCJA doubled the maximum amount of the child tax credit and increased the maximum refundable amount. TCJA also created a $500 tax credit for dependents (like college students or other adult members for whom the taxpayer provides significant support) who are not eligible for the child tax credit. Additionally, TCJA introduced a 20 percent pass-through deduction for non-corporate businesses and limitations on non-corporate loss deductions.
Federal projections indicate that if the provisions of the tax cut signed into law by President Trump in 2017 are extended beyond their original end dates, the federal deficit will increase by $4 trillion over the next decade.
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) reports that extending the individual income tax provisions of the 2017 tax act would result in $3.3 trillion in primary deficits through 2034. This estimate is based on figures from the Joint Committee on Taxation, Congress’s nonpartisan tax policy and revenue estimating service. But wait, there’s more! Increased interest costs associated with these deficits would add another $467 billion to the national deficit.